Cogs Agency

The History of Social Media Games

Tom — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:46:02 +0000

I came across this really nice Info graphic on MMM, Lovely Design Blog showing how our games that we play today have progressed into the digital and social media we use today.

Will the New Peel Impact On Apple’s Core Sales?

KimT — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:16:31 +0000

A gadget recently invented by a 22-year-old programmer living in China, appears to convert Apple’s iPod Touch into the iPhone. The device works via a case fitting around the outside of the Touch and compromises a popular media player , Wi-Fi-enabled pocket computer with e-mail, maps and other applications.

The Apple Peel 520 then uses a dock connector, a battery and a SIM card, in order to allow users to be able to make phone calls. All that remains is for the user to install the special software to allow text messaging functions, and hey presto! you’ve got yourself an iPhone!

It still remains unknown whether or not the Apple Peel 520 will have much impact upon iPhone sales, or even whether or not it will appeal to the market, but the device is being sold on some e-commerce sites. Until they can be given the go ahead for mass manufacturing, research has to be conducted to ensure no intellectual property right violations are occurring.

For more check out this and demo here.

What are your thoughts on the Peel? Do you think that it threatens the iPod? Will it impact on Apple’s sales?

Big Bang Big Boom

Tom — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:31:00 +0000

I came across this really clever piece of Stop Motion by ‘Blu’ who have animated their take on the evolution of life and how it’ll all end. Apparently it’s been available for viewing on YouTube and Vimeo for 4 weeks and has already raked in almost 3million views.

Jeff Nishinaka – The Paper Genius

Gaby — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:15:23 +0000

Have a look at this artwork, pretty cool for just paper. Jeff Nishinaka is an LA based artist who uses only paper to sculpt 3D pieces. He uses mainly white paper to create these beautiful artworks using light and shadow to empasise the sculptures.

http://www.jeffnishinaka.com

Audi’s Reality Calender

Tom — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:13:25 +0000

Audi has just released the first Car calender with…. no cars. The idea is that you buy the landscape calender and download the i-phone app, which then projects a digital car image onto the calender image when hovered over. Great idea and concept. If you have an iPhone and are a fan of Audi cars of course.

All credit to Digital Buzz for flagging this up – http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/audis-augmented-reality-calendar/

Who is Britain’s best dressed Adman?

Kit — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:05:24 +0000

Esquire Magazine are on the lookout for Britain’s best dressed Adman (and it’s just men who will make the list, sorry ladies). They’ve already released their ten man shortlist, with the order being announced later. The names on the list are:

Constantine Chiotis (Mediacom)

Daniel Brown (Mediacom)

Jeremy Brown (Sense Worldwide)

John Hegarty (BBH)

Mike Roberts (Carat)

Nick Fox (DDB UK)

Roy Luwolt (Mediacom)

Richard Haywood (Manning Gottlieb OMD)

Sebastian Revell (Vizeum)

Vishal Burgul (Vizeum)

You can view all the photos on the Campaign website.

Personally, my vote goes to Roy Luwolt of Mediacom, but I have to admit I’m hardly inspired. Where are all the Don Drapers?

Who do you think should make the list?

A good ‘Frashing’ for the iPad?

KimT — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:51:57 +0000

The hype amongst iPad owners and Apple’s incapacity to support Flash technologies may finally be coming to an end after recent studies have revealed that a new application for jail-broken iPads can now run a version of Flash in their safari browser, called Frash.

Frash was coined and created by a company called Comex, who you may recognise as being the founders of the Spirit jailbreaker for the iPhone 3.1.3 and iPod touch 3.1.3. The idea of Frash is that it can run all Flash related programmes, games and applications bringing harmony to the Flash loving iPad owners.

However, Frash isn’t quite there yet because it’s currently not available for wide release due to the fact that it is still technically unstable for mass usage. But Comex aren’t stopping there, Frash is available at GitHub for developers who fancy tweaking and improving the software with the aim to make it stable enough for release on the market.

What are your thoughts on Frash? Do you think that it can be stabilised for mass usage? Do you think that it will solve the Flash/iPad problems? Have you played around with the software yourself?

Frash demo here

App Inventions at Your Finger Tips

KimT — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:39:45 +0000

http://www.livbit.com/article/tag/android/

Have you ever thought of an App that would be incredible useful, but don’t have the technological knowledge to put the idea into motion? Well that maybe a thing of the past…

According to an article published by the BBC, the days of App ignorance are finally behind us, due to Google’s release of tools that “make it easy for anyone to create programs for Android phones”.

The App Inventor was created by a group of super tech wizards at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the idea is based around the structure of Lego blocks, whereby you move the boxes of code around to make the applications.

Don’t believe how simple it is? Check it out here

What are your thoughts on The App Inventor? Have you any brilliant app ideas that you’ve been dying to get your hands on?

How will traditional (print) news media make money from digital?

Kit — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:45:15 +0000

Some print media do digital well. Some don’t. But even those that do it well have always struggled to make money from digital. How does a news source like the Guardian (and here we’ll be looking at news sources) make money, when on the internet, ‘information wants to be free’?

I believe that the culture of the free internet is changing. There is so much information out there, that consumers are now willing to pay small amounts of money for quality content. There appear to be at least four main ways to make money from your digital content. But firstly, let’s examine why news sources need to make money from their digital content, whilst they continue to sell papers…

Digital news provides extra content. You have the Guardian’s ‘Comment is Free‘ section, which despite its title, costs money to run. You also have all the extra bloggers, who must be paid. Also, having all your articles available online for free might prevent consumers from buying the paper copy. Personally, I read all my news online, and only buy the paper copy of the Guardian when travelling (and only then when I can’t use my iPhone – such as on airplanes and in that 3G ‘dead-zone’ between Stevenage and Peterborough).

The first way to make money is to continue along in the same vein, namely to keep content free but charge for advertising on the site. It’s debatable whether this is effective, both for the news source and the advertiser.

The second way is to follow The Times example and operate a paywall. The question is, as a stand-alone act, will this benefit The Times or work against it? Will people agree to pay for The Times’ content, or switch to a free alternative, such as The Telegraph? As BBC Breakfast said, is it not like operating a tollbooth in the middle of the ocean?

The third method is to use micropayments, where you pay for each article you read. Personally, I’m not sure how effective this could be, as picking which news articles I want to read each morning would prove annoying, and I would probably opt to not read anything at all.

Finally (and once again it’s the Guardian), we have applications. The Guardian iPhone app costs £2.39, but that’s a one-off payment. You can then access all the Guardian’s content daily, and even choose to download sections for browsing offline when you’re on the Tube (or north of Watford). Personally, this is my preferred approach, and one that I would like to see take off with other news sources.

How do you think traditional news media can make money from digital? Is there an approach that I have missed? Would you be willing to make micropayments for particular articles? And if so, which articles?

Getting started as a freelance designer

Tom — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:09:08 +0000

For any new Creatives in the digital design industry looking to go Freelance and have not done so before. Here is some advice from an experienced designer Morten Neilsen.

I recently started out as a freelance digital designer and to my surprise I had a hard time finding articles that described the start up process.

Here’s a list of things that would help you start out as a freelance digital designer in the UK:

1. Get an accredited accountant
A good accredited accountant (I use an ACCA accredited accountant) is important for any business as they will be able to advice you on how to tackle tax, claims, etc.

2. Get your company registered
Your accountant will advise you on which company option is best for your business. I’m registered as a private limited company. This helps me control my cash flow better as supposed to sole trader. Working as a digital freelancer most recruitment agencies require you work through an umbrella company. I wanted more control so I went with a limited company.
Remember: always have enough capital at the end of the fiscal year to pay your taxes!

3. Open a bank account
This takes longer than you might expect. In my case I ‘just’ needed a sort code and an account number to send invoices. I started out with a secondary bank as I wanted private and business banking with two different banks to physically separate the two. But the ‘adviser’ basically didn’t know what he was doing and after 4 weeks (!!!) with no results I had to go with my private bank. This was up and running in half a day. So sometimes starting with your own bank might be the best solution.
Remember: banking cost money. There is no such thing as ‘free banking’.

4. Get an accounting system
I use Freeagent. This is a online accounting system tailor made for freelance designers. It’s basically all your accounting tools in one place: timesheets, banking, invoicing, contacts, and (very important) keeps track of your taxes. This also keeps tracks of, and numbers your invoices.
Remember: invoice numbers/names need to be unique for every invoice you send.
Everything is online, so should you be unlucky and your machine breaks down or gets stolen, everything can be accessed through a browser.
Remember: keep all your receipts for later claim.

You can use this referral code to get 10% off Freeagent monthly fee.

5. Register with recruitment agencies
It’s a good idea to register with a couple (3-4). Remember to always keep track of where your CV is sent, so you don’t end up having two recruiters sending your details through on the same job. I would recommend (in no particular order):

6. Figure out your rate
Figure out what day rate you want to charge. Recruitment agencies are usually quite good regarding advice on this.

7. Invoice, invoice, invoice

These few steps should help you get off to a good start and help you control you business.

Check out the main source from Morten’s Linkedin account

http://www.linkedin.com/share?viewLink=&sid=s63808537&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2Fc2OH7N&urlhash=J6sX&uid=0a9545cf-f071-4409-a4d5-ec2023323eac&trk=NUS_UNIU_SHARE-lnk